Lai Changxing

Lai Changxing ( Chinese  賴昌星  /  赖昌星 , Pinyin Lài Chāngxīng ; born September 15, 1958 in Jinjiang , People's Republic of China ; nickname: Fat Lai ) is a Chinese businessman and leader of a criminal smuggling organization . On May 18, 2012, he was therefore sentenced to life imprisonment.

Life

youth

Lai Changxing has seven siblings. His parents were poor farmers. He only attended school for three years.

With friends he founded a car repair shop in 1979. In 1991 a friend from Hong Kong adopted him. This gave him the freedom to travel and other business benefits. In 1994 he founded an import and export company called Yuanhua based in Xiamen .

smuggling

According to the Chinese authorities, Lai Changxing was the leader of a smuggler syndicate between 1996 and 1999. The ring is said to have illegally imported goods worth around 5 billion euros by controlling ports and transport routes, gas stations and real estate. These include cars, oil, cigarettes and electronics. He is said to have bribed business partners, customs officials and officials of the Communist Party .

In 1999 Lai Changxing fled to Hong Kong by speedboat , then on to Vancouver .

Asylum in Canada

Lai Changxing applied for asylum in Canada because he was facing torture and the death penalty in China. After almost twelve years of extradition proceedings, he was finally on the weekend of 23/24. Transferred to the Chinese authorities in July 2011. The Chinese government previously undertook not to sentence Lai Changxing to death or torture him in custody, and guaranteed a public trial and a lawyer. In April 2012, the trial opened in the Xiamen Intermediate People's Court . On May 18, 2012, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for smuggling and active bribery .

Red House

After Lai Changxing's escape, the "Red House" with massage parlors, karaoke rooms and suites was confiscated and was supposed to serve as a public "corruption exhibition". Since there was an unexpected rush of visitors, the museum was closed again after a few weeks and is currently (July 2011) in operation as a training center.

See also

• Organized crime
• Triad (criminalistics)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Jutta Lietsch: The steep career of "Dickerchen Lai". In: the daily newspaper . July 25, 2011. Retrieved July 25, 2011 . 
2. ↑ Lai multimillionaire in court: King of Smugglers , Spiegel Online , April 7, 2012
3. ↑ Smuggler King: Lifelong for China's public enemy number 1 . Welt Online , May 18, 2012, accessed May 18, 2012.

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Lai is the family name here, Changxing is the first name.